The High-Tech Smartphone Cleaner You Can Find At McDonald's In Japan

While Japan does differ from the US in many ways, you may be surprised to learn that McDonald's has an impressive foothold in the restaurant industry over in Japan. According to Japan Insider, McDonald's Japan is well-known for its special menu items and fantastic customer service — although the chain is said to have smaller portions than what Americans get.

But we're not here to talk about the food. Instead, we're here to talk about the smartphone cleaner you can find in a McDonald's bathroom in Japan. As one Twitter video details, there's actually a narrow opening located on the bathroom sinks, just large enough for a standard smartphone to fit into. Once a phone is inserted, the slot is then covered and blue UV rays then "scan" the phone to kill off any bacteria that may be on its surface. The whole process takes only a few seconds and the phone is returned to the customer "clean" but none the worse for wear. 

Who made such a thing and why? Is McDonald's the only company in Japan that allows customers the option to "wash" their smartphone or is this actually part of a small but notable trend in Japan? 

If the past few years have been any indication, people have started to become more and more conscious about their health — most notably avoiding bacteria. Perhaps that's why the Japanese company WOTA created what it calls the WOSH smartphone cleaning system. WOSH employs both UV lights and a hydrological process to clean the phone — something WOTA claims is not only a completely sustainable process (apparently reusing more than 98% of the water it uses) but also cleans 99.9% of bacteria from a phone screen in just 30 seconds. 

The WOTA Corp has 20 of its phone cleaning systems installed in the Ginza District's popular shopping center as of 2020. While the COVID-19 pandemic no doubt helped to jumpstart the company, WOTA was actually working on the WOSH system before the pandemic. Its main purpose was to help alleviate long lines for bathrooms.  

A bathroom that washes both your hands and your smartphone is no doubt very interesting to say the least. But what else does McDonald's Japan have that American McDonald's don't?

To be clear, whether you live in Japan or the United States, McDonald's is always going to be about cheap fast food. No amount of language barriers will change that. But there are some slight differences to be found when comparing McDonald's in America and Japan — outside of the smartphone cleaner in the bathroom, of course.

Insider notes that the menu at a Japanese McDonald's differs somewhat from the menu in America. Teriyaki burgers and chicken filets are a common sight, with one notable chicken-based menu item being the "Shaka Shaka Chicken." This is a breaded chicken filet that you put in a paper bag and shake to cover in spices. Although McDonald's Japan doesn't have Quarter Pounders, their cultural counterparts are known as Gran Burgers, which come in a variety of flavors like Bacon and Cheese or Garlic Pepper.  Customers can also choose the standard Filet-o-Fish or select the Ebi Filet-o, which is a filet made from chunks of shrimp.

While the menu does differ than we may expect here in the United States, the atmosphere is also said to be slightly different. Delishably tells us that Japanese McDonald's feel more like an actual sit-down restaurant by the way people treat it rather than another fast-food convenience, being slower and less frantic than American McDonald's. At the end though, it's still McDonald's through and through, even with the cultural differences.